The technology for the formation of dried elongated pasta has long been available wherein fresh pasta strands are shaped commonly into a nest shape and exposed to high temperature drying conditions. The resultant dried nests are unsuitable for inclusion in re-heatable frozen meals as the shape is inevitably lost when the pasta is re-hydrated during pre-cooking. Consequently subsequent portioning steps prior to freezing necessitate the undesirable cutting of the pasta lengths.
The prior art further describes frozen pasta formed by a process wherein a fresh pasta sheet is cut into strips and portioned by directly filling a mould. These bundles of pasta are subsequently cooked within the mould and may then be frozen.
The portioning of fresh pasta prior to a cooking step overcomes the difficulties associated with later division, effectively removing the necessity for random cutting of the pasta. The flexible nature of fresh pasta lends itself well to portioning prior to cooking however it is not possible to achieve an ‘al dente’ texture from the fresh pasta and so the essence of a traditionally cooked Italian meal cannot be achieved by this route.
In order to maintain an ‘al dente’ texture in the re-heated product it is desirable for a pasta that has undergone a high temperature drying process to be used as the starting material. Methods known in the prior art for the production of frozen pasta in which re-hydrated dried pasta has been used are predominantly limited to those wherein short pasta products such as penne, fuselli etc. undergo cooking and freezing.
The Applicants have therefore identified a desire to introduce elongated re-hydrated pasta products which have undergone high temperature drying into instant cooking frozen pasta meals, wherein the length of the pasta is maintained in the prepared meal.
The inflexible and fragile nature of elongated dried pasta products presents considerable technical difficulties. Such products are particularly difficult to portion on an industrial scale when re-hydrated and clearly cannot be molded into nests when in their dried form. Previous attempts to prepare frozen elongated pasta products have involved the horizontal cooking of pasta lengths in a large vessel then straining and portioning, however known techniques for portioning of the entangled lengths of pasta have not allowed the cutting of the pasta to be avoided. Consequently the product quality is considerably compromised by the presence of short pasta lengths.
The Applicants have identified an further consumer need for high quality frozen pasta meals that not only comprise substantially intact lengths of elongated pasta products but are instantly re-heatable in the home.
Reducing the mass of pasta in each portion to give a shorter re-heating time while providing a desirable nest shape has been found to present further technical problems. Using only a small amount of pasta it is particularly difficult to form and retain an appealing nest shape.
Achieving a nest shape in the frozen pasta besides being attractive is also desirable as it make the pasta lengths less vulnerable to breakage during any subsequent processing.
The Applicants by way of the present invention have devised a system which overcomes the problems outlined above, where frozen instant cooking pasta can be produced from elongated dried pasta products.
The present invention is therefore directed towards a process for the manufacture of frozen instant cooking pasta from elongated dried pasta products that substantially retains the pre-processing length of the dried pasta. Further embodiments are directed to the apparatus that is necessary for the formation thereof and the product achieved.